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Abstract
In this paper, we examine how nominal groups in Mandarin Chinese are involved in the realization of experiential grammatical metaphors, drawing on data from a history textbook chapter that recounts historical activities in the Opium War. We approach nominal group realizations of historical activities from a ‘top-down’ perspective along the hierarchy of stratification. While the discourse semantic figures construing activities can be realized congruently through a clause, the academic discourse of history favors nominal realizations. Previous descriptions of nominal groups in Mandarin Chinese have focused predominantly on the realization of entities. The nominal realizations of figures, however, have yet to be given sufficient consideration. We will show that some elements involved in such nominal groups do not share the functional characteristics of congruent ones. In addition to recognizable functions including Thing, Epithet, Measurer, Deictic and Qualifier, two distinctive functions, named here as Target and Orientation, are also identified. Our study aims to illustrate a descriptive method that considers multiple strata and provide a description of nominal groups involved in metaphorical realizations. The study suggests that grammatical descriptions need to reason from above, as well as round about and below – taking into account both discourse semantics and register variation.
Acknowledgement
The work presented in this article was supported by ANID-FONDECYT under grant N° 3190498.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Tabled examples in this paper comprise multiple rows including the Chinese characters, transliteration in pinyin, word-for-word glossing, labels for class (in lowercase letters) and function (with capital initials) for grammatical units ranging from higher to lower ranks, and a free translation. Labels for discourse semantic units are placed on top of the example.
2 Note that this is an improved version of analysis on the basis of Wang (Citation2020). Units involving the clitic 的 de is analyzed as having a ‘subjacency’ structure realized by a duplex (Martin, Doran, and Zhang Citation2021). In this paper we only present the structure and do not explore the reasons for the use of 的 de.
3 本 běn is the measure word for printed materials such as books, periodicals, etc.
4 The demonstrative 这 zhè is singular in number. In translation it is rendered as these because it is followed by a numeral larger than one in our example.
5 Transcategorization is known in traditional Chinese grammar as 兼类 jiānlèi ‘double/multiple classes’, whereby one phonological form realizes two or more grammatical classes (see e.g., Huang and Liao [Citation2017]).
6 It is important to note that activities can also be construed from a static perspective (Doran and Martin Citation2021). In history, an itemized activity is often given a proper name – e.g., the names of the historical events such as the Cultural Revolution or the Opium War). These discourse semantic entities (‘activity entities’ in Hao Citation2020) are realized through congruent nominal groups. Since our analysis focuses on metaphorical nominal groups, such itemized activities are set side in this study.
7 To compare the congruent and metaphorical realizations in the experiential metafunction, in the congruent clausal realizations we annotate only their experiential structures (transitivity), setting aside the interpersonal (mood) and textual (theme) structures.
8 We adopt the functional terms Grader and Property from Kim et al. (Citation2022).
9 In example (38) 场 cháng is a measure word used for events or happenings, roughly translatable as scene, episode, bout, etc. in English.
10 One particular word that might cause confusion would be 次 cì, roughly comparable to ‘time’ in English in the sense that indicates an instance of happening. In Chinese, however, this word is either a common noun, e.g., 这次 zhè cì ‘this time’, or a measure unit, e.g., 这次妥协 zhè cì tuǒxié ‘this compromise’. Therefore, although both (a) 清政府这次妥协了 Qīng zhèngfŭ zhè cì tuǒxié le ‘The Qing government compromised this time’ (or 这次清政府妥协了 zhè cì Qīng zhèngfŭ tuǒxié le ‘This time the Qing government compromised’) and (b) 清政府的这次妥协 Qīng zhèngfŭ de zhè cì tuǒxié ‘this compromise of the Qing government’ are grammatical, they do not realize the same discourse semantic meaning. Example (a) construes a situated figure with a setting, whereas (b) realizes an activity entity.
11 A coverbal phrase is formed by the combination of a nominal group following a coverb, a class of verb functioning as minor Process (Halliday and McDonald Citation2004, 317).